One conventional example of such an image display device is a liquid crystal display device 101 shown in FIG. 4.
This liquid crystal display device 101 includes a transparent protective part 103 made of, for example, glass or plastic on a liquid crystal display panel 102, as shown in FIG. 4.
In this display device, to protect the surface of the liquid crystal display panel 102 and a polarizing plate (not shown), a spacer 104 is arranged between the liquid crystal display panel 102 and the protective part 103 to form a gap 105 between the liquid crystal display panel 102 and the protective part 103.
However, the gap 105 present between the liquid crystal display panel 102 and the protective part 103 causes light scattering, and this results in a reduction in contrast and in brightness. In addition, the presence of the gap 105 also makes it difficult to produce thinner display panels.
In view of the above problems, a technique has been proposed in which the gap between the liquid crystal display panel and the protective part is filled with a resin (for example, Patent Document 1). However, the stress during cure shrinkage of the cured resin causes deformation of optical glass plates sandwiching the liquid crystal of the liquid crystal display panel. This results in display defects such as irregularities in the orientation of the liquid crystal material.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-55641.